Thank

Thank You Jim to start again a so learning blog; it's a real cursus about the train in the US for me , a Belgian.

Marc

I hope that we give you

I hope that we give you plenty to learn Marc!  

The subject of Photoshop

The subject of Photoshop Elements has come up on my APOLOGY thread. That is not the place to discuss such things and I hope that TOPIC fades away soon. Permit me to repost a few of my photos and offer some explanation about how I recendly created a photo backdrop.

Here is the layout as it is today with the photobackdrop installed. The setting and buildings are not yet complete but will represent 1927, the year that I am modeling. The layout represents one town, Sturgis, Mich. The brick structure at the left is the boiler house for Royal Chair Co. The buildings at the right are part of Sturgis Feed Mill. The photo backdrop was created from an photo of the actual street that is modeled here. How did I do that? Glad you asked.

Here is the "raw" photo that I used. I got it from STREET VIEW on Google Maps. Obviously, there are things in this photo image that I do not want in 1927 -- like the car and trucks, the utility lines, and for sure, the red STOP sign. Also, the perspectice is off with the image marrowing at the top causing the image to lean toward the center. I also had to eliminate the modern fire hydrant and the moderl, green, plastic garbage cans. All of this was corrected using my old Photoshop Elements 2.0.

There was another problem with this image, the sun angle was wrong, so that had to be corrected in Photoshop. Below is an intermediate image after the perspective has been corrected and the unwanted items removed items. Shadows are yet to be corrected.

The above scene was not wide enough to vover the space on the backdrop that I needed to fill. So, I went back to Google Maps and captured images of what is to the left and to the right of my original photo. Below is a screem capture from Photoshop showing how I am "inserting" parts of these auxiliary images into the original. All of this work is slightly time-consuming but is fun and yields a great little panarama for the needed backdrop. 

Note that I remove the sky. I prefer to use the painted on sky on my backdrop. This way I don't need to match sky colors. Keep it simple!!! Below is the almost completed combined photo for the backdrop. I added the sky color after carefully matched it to my backdrop. I still cut out the sky with scissors. Any the did not get cut away would match my backdrop making cutting away the sky an easy task.

I hope that this mini-tutorial is of some help to you.

Jim Six

Model Railroading is FUN

Transfered from TOPIC on enclosed industrial bridges

Here are my two partly

 

Bridges

Tue, 2018-03-13 11:19 — chris.mincemoyer

I worked for Federal Prison Industries at USP Lewisburg and we had a metal's factory (yea go figure) Our bridges connected the sheer and press departments in one building with the paint booths and final assembly in one building and then into another building that held inventory and packing. In you second picture, both of those building would need elevator shafts to move the product between the different levels and production lines.

Chris

 

Seagram's

Tue, 2018-03-13 11:25 — RSeiler

You can see the bridge over the tracks behind the string of hoppers. I think it is mostly just an enclosure around pipes and a conveyor. I think its cool, and I look forward to having it on my layout eventually. 

 

Randy

B&O/PC Cincinnati West, Summer 1975

 

Something I'd like to do

Tue, 2018-03-13 15:51 — JeffShultz

There is one bridge over the tracks (and a road) on the prototype I use for guidance. And that location is on my layout. So a bridge is a potential "gonna happen" for me.

 

What is interesting is that the building on the left has sort of a celestory roof that the bridge attaches to. It's odd - easier to show a photo:

 

The other end basically just goes into the roofline (squint a little, it's in the distance):

 

Jeff Shultz
MRH Technical Assistant
 

I'm in

My new home will have an indoor layout. I have yet to decide between continuing my Santa Maria Valley 1962 vintage HO layout or go to Pre WWII Colorado narrow gauge in On30.

The outdoor layout will continue my depression era Rocky Mountain Pacific Fn3 (1:20.3) pike:  http://mrdccu.com/layouts/RMP/

The Backdrop Tutorial

Jim, I'm glad you posted the tutorial again as one, united piece.  That will make it easier to reference when any of us start learning these skills.

Backdrop tutorial

Re: Enclosed Elevated Walkways

In addition to tying separate buildings into a unified industrial complex, walkways are useful in helping a track depart a scene somewhat gracefully: 

Don - That looks believable

Don,

Nice work. It certainly looks believable to my eyes! I like how you have kitbashed your buildings into configurations other than how Walthers intended. That is a great way to individualize yoru structures.

Jim Six

Probably the biggest single

Probably the single biggest advantage of modeling a pre-WWII setting. particularly if you go back to pre-1920 is the smaller -- read that shorter length -- freight cars and locomotives. They are typically half the length of modern freight cars. So, how is this an advantage?

The answer is straight forward. If the cars are half as long as modern cars, then a train, say, a 10-car train, will be half as long. This is akin to comparing N-scale to HO scale. If your trains are half as long, then you need half the space to run that train.

On the flip side, if the train is half as long and you have th esame space to build your layout, then there is more room to run the train. Either way, . . . advantage 1920 when compared to post 1960s, or even earlier.

Think about it, especially if you do not have much space for a layout.

Another big advantage of the

Another big advantage of the earlier era is how many products were made in country instead of imported from outside. Because there were so many things made in country there were more places to switch freight cars into and out of if that is your thing. If you like passenger cars there were lots of them as well. Toss in steam locomotives for something else that is likeable. And this last one is a big thing, there were lots more railroads to model as well as interurbans and street cars if you are interested in that. Plus we did not have the rails to trails crap that is going on now, employment vs walking trails seems like a poor trade to me.

One word Rob -- VARIETY

One word Rob -- VARIETY

Interesting lead photo for the blog

The engines are 4-4-0 American, obviously from past decades because of the decorative detail on the domes.  However, they have been updated with generators and electric lights.

I also model the decades before 1940.  Here in New England there are many brick buildings from the early 1900's that have survived and still in use.  History - my first scene is the Amherst station with the feed store behind it.  The feed store has been converted to offices, there are faint traces of letting visible though the paint.  The station was in use from 1853 to 2014, you could put anyone in front of it from Emily Dickinson to college freshmen in beanies.

Threading throughout the countryside are the berms of railroads and trolly lines abandoned many decades ago.

Bachmann 4-4-0

Does anyone know about this Bachmann HO locomotive? Does it run well. Do you have one or two that you would want to sell or trade? I can see GR&I on the sides of the tender!

Here is yet another great

Here is yet another great locomotive for the early part of the 1900s. The Bachmann 4-6-0.

Decades before WWII

Welcome back! Having limited space myself, I agree that modeling this area has the built in advantage of smaller freight cars. This was still largely true into the 1960's, which is what i remember from when I was young, and is the basis of my own modeling. By the following decade, freight cars were becoming considerably larger, and 40 foot boxcars were on borrowed time.

I know them both well!

The 4-6-0 runs better than the 4-4-0... but part of my issues with the 4-4-0, was traction, so i used Bullfrog Snot on two of the drivers. This means not great on the pickups... I cleaned the snot off (now that I have a layout, and not EZ track thrown on a bed) but you never get it all off. Going forward, it's great. Backing up, it is always an issue with losing some electrical connection over my plastic frogs (I still use EZ track for my layout)

It's the only engine with this issue. But it's still on my layout, because it was my first Spectrum I ever bought... my first DCC anything... and it's just so PURDY!

 

I changed the stack on it, bcause it just didn't look right having that straight stack with the wood load.

 

The 4-6-0 is the Sound Value version, and never has it had a problem ever.

I'm fightig with the 4-4-0 right now, not because of the 4-4-0, but because I have a Digitrax 16 bit sound decoder in it, and I'm having issues at the moment (while browsing here) with adding a sound project... it gets about half way, and the sound loader crashes.

Another "Sound Value" Bachmann engine worth knowing is their 2-6-0... they have two in Southern (what I model) one being from the Echo Valley set (it was cheaper to buy the set, and get the engine, than it was to buy the DCC controler by itself) and the other was a gift (two road numbers... the Echo Valley one is pretty plain, but same quality you expect from Spectrum, even though it's not a Spectrum, and the Sound Value one had a bit better detail on the front end)

 

This is the Echo Valley one. SOU #7080

 

This is the Sound Value one. SOU #7082



If you like Spectrum's quality, then I recoment all four of these engines, as Bachmann seems to have really upped their game with their basic stuff.

You do have to add your own figures though... if you want an Engineer, and Fireman.

Bachmann 4-4-0

I have one with sound. It’s one of the reasons I switched from Nscale. I think it’s great and I like operating with all the different sound effects. My only complaint that probably would apply to any non BLI P3 locomotive is that it gets drowned out by the my 2-8-0 and P3 subwoofer when operated together. I do have the 2-6-0 too, the “sound value “ version. I think it’s decent but I notice the sound effects missing on economy sound decoder. 

I model the 1920’s also for the variety mentioned in the first post. Even on the same railroad it’s realistic to have a short passenger train and a long freight train. Every self respecting railroad had a passenger train of some sort. I also have trolley tracks running near the ROW as was common around here. 

From the Earlier Blog

Sorry, posted in the wrong blog. This should have been in the One Town blog.

4-4-0

Heres a picture of my Richmond 4-4-0 converted to something CPish. The spacing of the front truck to the drivers should be larger and the cab should sit right over the last driver without the overhang to be right for a Canadian Pacific engine, but it is pretty close. I put a Tsunami Micro in it, runs great. 

I am currently working on a 4-6-0, the older Spectrum version with high drivers, the downside of the larger drivers is that it doesn’t have very good traction. I also have the smaller drivered version and it pulls better. Looks like the same principals that apply to the real thing apply to the models, for traction, go with smaller drivers!

The 4-4-0 pulls about what one should pull, 3 passenger cars is about it, I would like if it could pull one more car.

Spectrum 4-6-0

I have a couple of the Spectrum 4-6-0s and like their looks. They are a bit slippery on the rails. I checked the balance on the drivers and they are a bit nose-heavy. I was able to add about an ounce of weight in the cab using lead sheet. The interior roof of the cab offers some space for the extra weight. I made a paper template to fit and used that to cut two small pieces of lead for the space. Barge contact cement was used to affix the lead. A couple of small strips were also wrapped around the engineer and fireman pedestals. This extra weight improved the loco balance and the overall performance. 

Use caution when working with lead and wash your hands thoroughly after being in contact with the material.

Eric

I have several

James, I have three of the Bachmann Baldwin 4-4-0s and four of the 4-6-0s in my Miss Central fleet. I also have an IHC ALCO 4-4-0 and two Roundhouse 2-8-0s. All of them run flawlessly! I also have two of the 'new tooling' Bachmann 'old timers' and love how they run as well.

I have been meaning to start a blog on my Mississippi Central. I think I will began it by posting photos of these engines.

Thanks everybody for your

Thanks everybody for your replies about the Bachmann 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 models and a few other models. I have two of the early well detailed 4-6-0 models. I plan to re-detail tham as NYC power. I will also add lead weight as Eric described in his message.

The 4-6-0 locomotives will work for me in 1927. I am not sure the 4-4-0 will. Any ideas whether or not I could use one or two in 1927, and if so, what work would they have done at that time?

Thanks again,

4-4-0 NYC 999

This one only ran until 1924 but the article details how it was used in its later life. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Central_and_Hudson_River_Railroad_No._999

Back to industrial foot bridges

The 1st one had what I take to be a vent of some sort in one of the windows. The 2nd or 3rd photo had a couple of open windows to let fresh air in. I suspect that in days before  AC the bridges could get pretty hot during the summer and could collect ice during the winter on the inside if there were any leaks.

Jack